Five Cities and Provinces Unite
Joint Proposal Submitted to the National Assembly and Others
On the 2nd, Jeonnam Province, together with four local governments including Busan Metropolitan City, Incheon Metropolitan City, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, and Chungcheongnam Province, submitted a joint proposal urging the implementation of a regional differentiated tariff system based on electricity self-sufficiency rates to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the National Assembly. Photo by Jeonnam Province
Jeollanam-do, Busan Metropolitan City, Incheon Metropolitan City, Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province, and Chungcheongnam-do jointly submitted a proposal on the 2nd urging the implementation of a regionally differentiated electricity tariff system that takes into account the electricity self-sufficiency rate to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the National Assembly.
The regional electricity tariff system is based on the “Special Act on the Promotion of Distributed Energy,” which stipulates that an electricity sales business operator (Korea Electric Power Corporation) may set different rates to promote distributed energy and balanced national development.
During the parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in October last year, a three-tiered plan dividing the regions for differentiated electricity rates into the Seoul metropolitan area, non-metropolitan areas, and Jeju was unveiled. The ministry's 2025 business plan includes a phased introduction of regional electricity tariffs starting from the wholesale market.
However, Jeollanam-do maintains that regional electricity tariffs should not be based on uniform regional standards determined by geographical proximity, but rather should prioritize the electricity self-sufficiency rate, reflecting differences in the cost of supplying electricity, such as transmission and distribution costs from power plants to consumers.
Accordingly, in December last year, five cities and provinces with high electricity self-sufficiency rates of around 200% began joint discussions. Through continuous dialogue on the criteria for applying regional electricity tariffs, they prepared a consensus proposal to the central government, and on March 28, the governors of the five regions signed an agreement.
In the joint proposal, the five cities and provinces emphasized that the regionally differentiated electricity tariff system should prioritize encouraging energy-intensive companies in advanced strategic industries to relocate to areas with high electricity self-sufficiency rates, in order to resolve regional imbalances in electricity supply and demand and to minimize the national burden of building new power grids toward the Seoul metropolitan area.
They also called for: ▲ giving top priority to the electricity self-sufficiency rate of each metropolitan government ▲ disclosing clear application criteria and reflecting local governments’ opinions in advance ▲ implementing a regionally differentiated electricity tariff system in line with the legislative intent of balanced national development and the promotion of distributed energy.
Jeollanam-do plans to continue cooperating with the other four cities and provinces to introduce a rational regionally differentiated tariff system, including holding forums in the National Assembly and submitting proposals to central ministries, the National Assembly, and related organizations.
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